On Your
Marks – photo by Nigel A. JAMES
Ida Leo
Leaving Her
Mark
Finding
something to do whilst whiling away long hours of retirement wasn't a
problem for Mrs. Ida Leo of Canada. And, what she came up with has
certainly added an element of familiar colour to long winter evenings
of intensive indulgence in the books of one's choice!
Reading is
enjoyed by very many people, and, bookmarks are as essential to
readers as are brushes to painters, and, bookmarks, until Aida
reinvented them, were nothing other than functional strips to
indicate one's place in a book! But, that was then!
Now things
are different. Aida's bookmarks have not only made history, they
have become history - and all in a personalized manor! It all started
in 2001. Ida was reading War and Peace for the third time, and,
instead of using an old shopping list as a bookmark as she usually
did, she, without thinking, saved her place with a photo of her
daughter. And so, the next time when she picked up this
unputtable-down book, the first thing that she saw was the smile of
her daughter! And it was good so!
And, very,
very soon, the rest of her family were catching up on their personal
pasts with bookmarks by Ida, and it didn't stop there. Word spread,
and within a short space of time, Ida was receiving pictures through
the post to convert into bookmarks.
And now,
reading and remembering has become something more liquid, This lady
of humor and two cycles of forty has expanded her range with
personalized coasters. And what could be better? Old family snaps
in dusty forgotten boxes in attics, or, where they have prominence
of place? Thanks to Ida, the second choice, for very many people has
become the obvious option. And, Ida's long evenings of winter are no
longer long. They have become short, too short, with plenty to do!
Everyone, it seems, just can't wait for a book mark by Ida.
